Boo Bowls

Last year, Zac and I went to Color Me Mine and painted a boo bowl together and we absolutely love it. I kinda have a thing for traditions so I convinced him into making it a tradition to decorate/paint a boo bowl together every year for the halloween season. When we went to Mexico for our honey moon, I also convinced him that we should get a bowl from every place we visit...maybe someday we will find a clever way to display them all. I guess I do have an obsession for bowls.

Before it was painted (2011)

After...we tried really hard to make it look festive and spooky

The is the bowl that started it all from Mexico

This year we were super busy and never got around to making one, especially since Zac has been out of town so much for med-school interviews. While we were walking through some home decor stores in the mall on friday we saw some super cute bowls that were super cheap. We got two for less then 4 bucks so we figured it was okay to splurge a little bit and keep the tradition alive.

Here are this year's boo bowls...as you can see the designers were much more creative than we are

Our ward has an annual Halloween soup and chili party followed by trunk-or-treating. We have yet to figure out costumes but we are pretty excited to go and see all the primary kiddos dressed in theirs'.


Happy Halloween!

p.s. Zac has gotten two acceptances to med-school so far!!!

Fall trounces the diet

The first three letter of this dreadful word diet, D-I-E, have some very literal implications since death is exactly the feeling that is beginning to overcome me. I've been counting (and cutting) calories for a  month now for a health behavior change class and to be honest, I should have thought about what I was depriving myself of before signing a contract. On the bright side, I've dropped a few pounds and some of jeans that were being neglected forever are finally fitting. Zac has also joined me in this endeavor so I have managed to eliminate most sources of subtle sabotage that may occur. I only have to be meticulous about what I eat for another week so I am thrilled since fall is my absolute favorite time of the year to be in the kitchen. All the produce I crave is in season, you can have hot chocolate without sweating and best of all, baking supplies always seem to go on sale this time of year. My only complaint is that it always goes by way too fast and then winter just goes on forever... in fact, the snow that came down yesterday is beginning to worry me that fall will only last for another week or two.

Which is exactly why I've planned our meals from November 5th to December 15th already to make sure I get to try all the recipes I've been hoarding since last fall (Zac thinks it's borderline obsessive and excessive, but I just think too much of a good thing, especially food, can only be wonderful).

So my ten absolutes that the kitchen needs for the fall...

1. Butternut Squash 

Perfect roasted with onions then blended with some stock for a soup

2.Apples 

Jonathans, granny smith, pink ladies, and honey crisp are my favorite for pies and crisps

3.Broccolini (for some reason I see these more often during the fall and they are so good steamed with butter)

 4.Swiss/Rainbow Char and Kale 

The best for dropping into soups, or sauteing with garlic, balsamic vinegar and shiitake mushrooms

5.Ham hocks They aren't the nest looking things but they are absolutely packed with savory goodness and work really great in soups or stewed lentils. My grandma used them all time in stews.

 6.Lentils

Red or green, these are my go to legume in the fall to put in soups

7.Pumpkin

 Pie, mousse, soup, grilled, mashed, roasted...you name it and it is delicious

8.Leeks/scallions 

I tend to choose these over onions this time of year especially for soups...it's milder and very aromatic

9.Chicken stock

I could not make it through this season without having this on hand, it's so reassuring to walk in my pantry and see that I have about 5 gallons of chicken stock ready to use

I really like Pacific's free range low sodium, fat free stock

                                             10.Cinnamon & Nutmeg 

This is the only time of the year I ever break out the nutmeg for white sauces and gravy

Also, using really good quality cinnamon makes all the difference

Happy autumn!

Things Lately...

School is in full swing and things are pretty busy, but life couldn't be better. Lately, my activities have been surrounding organization, watching Nigellissma with Nigella Lawson (my new kitcheneering idol), and thinking of ways to keep our 11-year-old Sunday School class entertained. One of our students has developed a fondness for Zac and is over regularly to play games and eat our candy.

Zac has been to several medical school interviews, his most recent being at Baylor Medical Center in Houston. We are hoping to get in somewhere in Texas since the tuition is so much cheaper!

My caramel popcorn obsession has persisted and evolved into a caramel corn puff obsession. I always have a freezer size bag of it around and, shamefully, in my backpack.

For date night this week we went to the dollar store with 10 bucks each and went wild finding Halloween decor. We only ended up spending 13 dollars, which I think rightly fits the spooky virtue of the holiday. When we got home, we put on some Monster Mash music, sipped on hot chocolate and apple cider and decorated away. Unfortunately, we did not coordinate our decorations and ended up having a living room doused in colors that no one in their right mind would ever put together, but hey it looked very...seasonal. It was a a little hard to give up the Easter bunny sign I keep up year round since I love Easter but now our home feels festive.

Some life changing kitchen discoveries have also occurred. A few weeks ago, I walked through the condiment aisle and found a new product: Balsamic glaze. I go through phases with vinegars and usually I get stuck on one kind for a while, and this phase has lingered for a while. I've tried reducing my own balsamic vinegar before to get it sweet and syrupy but there is absolutely NO WAY of doing that without avoiding the acrid, sour, pungent smell of the reducing balsamic vinegar that haunts your house for days! This glaze was a revelation that has completely changed the way I have been making all types of sauces and dressings. It's great over miso salmon, steamed bak choy, wheat berries, pasta salads, grilled chicken, margarita pizza, and the list goes on. I am not sure if I will be able to cope if my 7 oz. bottle runs out before I can buy it again, since I told my self I would only buy it once every 2 months.

Here are some pictures from our recent happenings

 organized pantry

 Every Wednesday Fatoush Salad

 Gingerbread cupcakes with Molasses and Buttercream frosting

 The Balsamic Glaze in action

 My first canning experience...using my makeshift canning pot

This is a very a big part of our addictions...having treats on hand.

This picture wasn't exactly very recent...but I saw it today and thought what a happy picture it was...and somehow I got tons of pictures on food and hardly any of us...isn't Zac so strong! He makes it look so effortless to carry me.